The Tongariro Crossing

Today we completed the 18.5 km Tongariro Crossing – a hike that traverses (as one might guess) Mt. Tongariro. The hike is considered to be the “best” one day hike in NZ. While I’ve come to realize that words like “best”, “gorgeous” and “awesome” are tossed around here with little thought given to reality (ie. would you really use the word “awesome” to describe Blue Mountain or “gorgeous” to describe the Hudson River?), this actually turned out to be pretty cool.

We were a bit apprehensive at first – given that we don’t have proper winter clothing with us and today was another freezing cold morning. I won’t lie – it was really frickin’ cold at first with blistering 50kph winds, and part of me wanted to turn back and go home. But then I remembered that the Kiwi’s don’t believe in heating their buildings, so I would be frozen at home too. : )

It got a lot better once we got into the sun and snow at higher altitude. We strapped on our crampons and got out our ice picks. What were the ice picks for you ask? Well, as the guide said, the ice picks were there just in case we fell off the side of the mountain and we had to save ourselves from falling to a most painful death.

I have to say the crampons were really cool. They let you go anywhere on the mountain – you just pick a line and up (or down) you go!

While I haven’t been too keen on being back in the heart of winter, I really enjoyed seeing the snow today – I was reminded just how much I like it. But having said that, I am looking forward to hitting the beach in Fiji this weekend!

All in all, the highlight of the day (other than not getting hypothermia) was the great view of Mt. Ngauruhoe – better known as Mordor’s Mt. Doom. Sadly, still no hobbit sightings…